Speaking during Sony's CES 2012 press conference last night, not-quite-president Kaz Hirai revealed that the PlayStation Vita has sold a respectable 500,000 units since its launch in Japan just 20 days ago

The numbers look great when stacked up like that, but it's hard to forget that the system sold just over half of that tally within its opening weekend, before taking a significant dip in the days..

The 3G version of the PlayStation Vita will not require a contract in North America, provider AT&T has revealed

The service will come in two flavours, with $15 bagging you 250MB of data and $25 netting you 2GB. Unsurprisingly, the prices are near identical to those offered for the iPad in the US. Players will be able to purchase data on a month-to-month basis, making the 3G device infinitely..

It's still a little bit too early to start wondering where the PlayStation Vita billboards and TV commercials are; it's only January after all

The good news is that the marketing campaign is coming, and, in the UK at least, Sony's aiming big. Speaking with MCV, SCE UK's marketing manager, Mark Bowles, revealed that the platform holder is planning the "biggest campaign" in the brand's..

Two PlayStation 4 rumours in a single day? The next generation must be nearing

PSM3 magazine's the latest publication to jump on the bandwagon. The magazine speculates that early signs already point to Sony's next console being "quite a bit more powerful" than the next XBOX, though it's unclear of the publication's sources for the claim. Additionally, the magazine states that the next..

The Japanese games market declined in 2011, according to reports published by Enterbrain via Famitsu

That was despite a 2.4 percent increase in hardware sales — up to ¥179,740 million ($2.3 billion) — spurred by the releases of the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. Indeed, while the hardware bump was significant, it wasn't enough to stave off a whopping 14 percent drop in software sales,..

Considering all the doom and gloom around the Internet regarding the PlayStation Vita's unspectacular second week sales, the system actually held relatively well in its third week

Given some armchair analysts were expecting the sytem to drop as low as 10k units, its actual sell through of 42k units looks mightily impressive in comparison. Of course, it's still a long way away from where a newly..

The media's smear campaign against the PlayStation Vita hit a new high last night, when a batch of US media outlets jumped on an erroneous Amazon listing that claimed the 3G SKU of Sony's new portable system had been cancelled before release in North America. Of course, those with an ounce of common sense would have realised this was a mistake on Amazon's part, but the story spread like..

When we saw headlines popping up around the web this afternoon regarding the price of the 3G PlayStation Vita, we wondered for a split-second if Sony had done the unthinkable -- prematurely slashed the price of the PlayStation Vita

After all, there's a lot of headlines filling our Twitter feed right now that run with the words, "Japanese retailers cutting the price of 3G PlayStation..

Anyone else got a sense of deja-vu? Those of you that follow the wider video games media in detail will recall hearing the death knells for Nintendo's 3DS earlier in the year

The agenda-pushing mainstream media informed us that dedicated handheld games devices are in decline, and that the market Nintendo once dominated was lost. Of course, no amount of agenda-pushing could change the fact that the..

The PlayStation Vita got off to a reasonable, if unspectacular, debut in Japan -- but its second week sales paint a troubling picture for the platform in the near future

The well equipped handheld was outsold by the 3DS, PSP, Wii and PS3 during its first full week on the market, recording sales of just over 70,000 units. For comparison, Nintendo's newly re-surged handheld platform scooped up..

Staying true to PlayStation's irritating penchant for frequent firmware updates, Sony's bumped up the PlayStation Vita's official firmware for the second time since its Japanese release earlier in the month

A tiny update released in Japan overnight ups the system's on-board software to version 1.51, which aims to alleviate any crashing and freezing issues experienced in "some" games —..

Here's a fascinating little factoid for you that comes courtesy of a feature published on the PlayStation Blog: the PlayStation Vita was designed by the same person as the original Walkman

Turns out that the man behind PlayStation Vita's sleek design was none other than Takashi Sogabe, a man that's spent 27 years working at Sony on products such as the very first Walkman. Sogabe told the..

Sales tracking firm Media Create has revealed that the PlayStation Vita pushed 300,000 units of software during its first couple of days on sale in Japan

As previously reported, Sony's sassy new piece of hardware shifted just under 325k units during the same period, giving the system a software attach rate of 0.92 titles per PS Vita. Despite the PS Vita's strong software line-up, it failed to..

Sony's lifted the lid on the PlayStation Vita's gigantic launch line-up for North America

Director of hardware marketing, John Koller, described the unprecedented 25 game strong launch line-up as the "biggest and best" any platform has ever released alongside. Even if Koller is paid to say these things, it's hard to disagree. Day one titles from the platform holder include Uncharted:..

So much for Sony denying any awareness of widespread PlayStation Vita glitches

A new video spotted by Andriasang shows a brand new PlayStation Vita running a bizarre underwater debug mode. The screen shows four swimming dolphins, a floating oyster and a pearl, all from different perspectives. The debug mode would be cool if it could be exited, but unfortunately for this new PlayStation Vita owner..

Sony has downplayed any suggestions that the PlayStation Vita is suffering from crashing or freezing problems following the device's launch in Japan over the weekend

Speaking with The Guardian, SCE UK's head of public relations David Wilson said, "We're annoyed with these stories, because we can't find any evidence of widespread glitches." He continued that, contrary to other reports,..

Sometimes we deliberate whether to even bother typing up the Japanese sales charts

There's often not much to commentate on, but this week is huge. Final Fantasy XIII-2 topped the Media Create sourced charts, selling over 500k units on the PlayStation 3. While the numbers look impressive on their own, it's worth noting that the game's predecessor managed to sell 1.1 million units back in 2009. The..

Following up Enterbrain's figures yesterday, Japanese sales tracking firm Media Create has released an alternative preliminary report on the PlayStation Vita's opening sales figures

Andriasang reports that the company puts the PS Vita's opening sales at about 325,000 units — slightly higher than Enterbrain. The firm also noted that the the initial shipment was around 500,000 units, supporting..

If you were a little disappointed by yesterday's PlayStation Vita sales numbers, it's probably because you believed an earlier rumour that put the system's initial shipment at about 700,000 units

But that number's been clarified overnight. In a column posted on Nikkei, IGDA Japan vice coordinator Kyoshi Shin said that the shipment was closer to 500,000 units. However, Shin was critical of Sony's..

The newly released PlayStation Vita enjoyed a strong start in Japan, but failed to outpace the Nintendo 3DS in its first two days on sale

Famitsu reports that Enterbrain recorded 321,407 PS Vita consoles were sold within the system's first 48 hours on the market. In the same period the Nintendo 3DS scooped up 371,326, but Sony will be not be concerned as long as PS Vita sales remain consistent. The..